Vessigny Secondary School (SONG)

Date for Entry: (Unknown/Forgotten; JULY 2012)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 28 July 2025)

Dear Diary,

    The following relates to the works associated with achieving accomplishment on works to the works of Vessigny Secondary School. Compilation of information for this journal entry began in 2025, and many dates from 2011 to the present may not have been recorded/recalled. Not all work (either used or outdated versions) may have been saved or video recorded for the presentation.

 

MUSIC REQUEST.

**  July 2012 **

This afternoon, there was a special visit from my Uncle Ram and Aunty Annmarie. At this point in my life, I was in Form Two at Hillview College. There was a request from Uncle Ram. He has asked to “do the music for this song”. I was given a sheet of lyrics and a disc. I learned from him that this was his school’s song.

    The challenge was accepted in my mind. I hoped at the time that I would be able to fulfil the task. Just before leaving, he managed to sing me a few parts of the song he could recall. The rest of the song would come by exploring the disc’s recording provided to me. The project became a ‘Universal Challenge’. This term did not exist at the time (probably until 2018 or earlier).

 

SONG’S TRANSCRIPTION.

** Unknown/Forgotten **

The recording provided to me by Uncle Ram was a vocal piece with piano accompaniment. The voice was sung by a female. I admired the depth that she went to in the chorus. Since my main task was to play the song on the Tenor pan, I worked on transcribing the melody alone. I made sure to insert the lyrics. I used the same recording to practice the music and follow the score I created. It was ready, but I was not sure when the time was to play it.

LINK(S):

• Recording from Disc. [Disc Lost]

 

PERFORMANCE.

** Sunday 20 October 2013 **

This afternoon, Aunty and Uncle came up from Princess Town in the cooler part of the evening. It was nice to see Joshua also. Daddy had to rush me home to meet them. I was helping mommy and her coworkers set up the polling station for the Local Government elections that will be conducted tomorrow. They were situated in the Curepe Community Centre.

    I got to share with Uncle the music that I did. Mommy suggested that I go through the song first. He was only interested in getting the steelpan music. Luckily, I had the idea to use headphones to hear the recording and play the pan.

    The first two attempts to record the pan playing were still quiet. On the third attempt, Uncle sat beside the pan and held his phone just below its belly. This time, the recording was clear enough. We learned that this recording would be used for a teacher’s retirement event. He also mentioned that the teacher was very fond of steelpan music.

 

PIANO SCORE.

** Unknown/Forgotten **

From 2013 to 2018, there were about five attempts to transcribe the piano part of the school song. It was my wish to have a complete score of the work for archival purposes and for the school to keep. The final attempt was the best that I possibly could, but sadly, it remained a nightmare. I’m not sure when the next attempt will be made.

STEELBAND ARRANGEMENT.

** May 2017 **

During the summer of 2017, I completed my Certificate in music. The final semester ended with a course in the Fundamentals of Steelpan Arranging. I decided to take the knowledge gained from the course and begin a trial of transforming my previous work into a steelpan arrangement.

    Just like the attempts of the piano score, the same occurrences occurred. I would not have known how many trials there would have been needed to get to where it is today. In total, there were eight attempts made, and they were finally accomplished.

    The final attempt that brought the completion was done after my degree in music at the University of the West Indies (UWI-DCFA). There were two more steelpan arranging courses in that programme, which had me return to the song for another review. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1).

    Towards the early beginning of the Summer Vacation, after the completion of my Certificate program at UWI, I decided to visit the piano and voice score that I made and attempted to do a steelband version. I thought that if the school had a Steelband, maybe they might have wanted that too. The idea came after I had finally been able to get Hillview College's anthem written out for Steelpan in 2015. 

    In the case of Hillview, even though I knew the steelpan tutor said "nobody wants to have that," I saw the necessity to have it. I also received appreciation from the boys in the band when I made copies for them.

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V2).

    I think that at the end of my Steelpan Arranging 1 course (in the degree programme), I decided to revise and fix the entire score I did in version one. The second version brought a huge improvement. The song still remained incomplete in my view. I found it not pleasing enough to be shared. 

    I was still satisfied to some small percentage, knowing that the song was one step closer to completion. I was not going to give up that easily. I knew that someday it would be reviewed again. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V4).

** Monday 11th October 2021. **

At this period in my life, I completed with Degree program at UWI. It was on Thursday 3rd of June 2021 that a plan was made to review the Vessigny Song again for the fourth time. My mind was not so focused on the project, and the ideas for tackling this fourth review were unfortunately not so numerous as I had hoped, resulting in a longer completion date. 

    One morning, I sat down from 12:00 AM until 5:00 AM and got the entire fourth version completed. I must admit Sections C and E were super challenging. I was now proud of myself for being able to accomplish them, along with the entire arrangement. 

    There were still a few insecurities (about less than five), which may have left me feeling as the first version. However, it was good to share with aunty Anmarie and Uncle Ram.

    On the Wednesday of that same week, I was able to send an email to Uncle copies of the separate parts. Getting pitch names levelled was a challenge. It was my first time using the inspector feature in Musescore to do this. Thanks to the kind people in the Musescore Facebook group for their assistance.

    In case the school chooses to use this arrangement, I hope that it brings them enjoyment and the proud, amazing feeling that I would have gotten when singing Hillview's anthem at the school. Version four was the same as version three. Minor changes were made to the ending.

STEELPAN ARANGEMENT (V5).

** Thursday 8th December 2022 **

A matter with the school’s logo was difficult. We did not have an electronic logo to work with. I was only able to find one on their school’s website and use it. This created the steelband arrangement and all of its accompanying parts to become version five.

    I saw that the shape of the ‘shield’ was not shown properly, but was darkened out to the lower portion. It was inserted and sent over by email. For some reason, I still found myself not feeling satisfied with the work. 

 

STEELPAN ARANGEMENT (V6).

** Monday 19th December 2022 **

    I saw another version of the same Vessigny logo given to me by Aunty. It was pixelated lightly, but I believed it was workable. However, the image was stained with a grey colour. The shape of the symbol in the lower portion had to be edited.

    It took about two and a half hours in total to clean the image and fix the shape of the ‘shield’. My biggest insecurity was spoiling the image in the process of trying to fix it. Because of this new change to the score, all separate parts had to be regenerated and relabelled.

 

SONG BOOKLETS.

** Thursday 16 December 2021 **

At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic was causing terror around the world. It may have been nearing its end around the date mentioned. On that day, I was visited again by Aunty Annmarie and Uncle Ram during the Christmas holiday from their trip up north. I had already prepared copies of the song booklets to bring to the school.

    There were twelve copies in total: one for myself and another for my aunty and uncle. The remaining booklets were copies that would be shared around the school’s compound. It was sad that I could not go with them to meet the Principal, and also to play the music myself at the school. I hope that in time these gifts from me will become useful to the students.

    Just as my working on anthems for other schools, the song needed a title. This was the only time that a person who was credited for creating a song was still alive. I was able to ask Miss County-Henry, through Uncle, to provide a name for the song. Within a few days, she named it “Our Very Own”. I was pleased that I did not have to decide on naming the song myself, as with all the other songs I previously worked on.

YOUTUBE VIDEO.

** Monday 28 July 2025 **

A few years of waiting had passed after the completion of the steelpan arrangement. I was requested by Miss County-Henry to wait until certain arrangements could be achieved before the video could be uploaded to YouTube.

    After waiting three years, I decided to move ahead with the YouTube video, which would then complete the work and finally bring an end to this project. The only difficulty at first was sourcing a workable logo and editing.

    Usually, at the end of the video, I liked inserting a picture of the school and its name printed clearly, but it was not provided. Instead of that image, the logo with a white background was used. I pray that after all these years of work, the video will be a beneficial teaching resource to the school and its students.

Daryl Zion M. Ali